


War is Good for Business

by cosmic_llin



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Gen, Medical, Podfic Available, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-06
Updated: 2010-04-06
Packaged: 2017-10-09 01:06:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/81348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate Pulaski is on a relief ship, heading for Wolf 359. She thinks the waiting is the worst part.</p><p>Written for the Rules of Acquisition Drabblefest at Where No Woman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	War is Good for Business

While they’re waiting, Kate Pulaski thinks the waiting is the worst part. She’s on a small medical relief vessel, headed at high warp towards Wolf 359, ready to meet the ships on their way back from the battle, victorious or otherwise. She and the other medics play poker in the sparse mess hall, and she checks over her triage kit more often than she needs to.

News starts to trickle in about the battle. Not going well. They brace themselves for a long night of garbled messages from the fleet as the battle rages – but it doesn’t happen. The battle is over. The Borg ship passes them on its way towards Earth.

They retrieve the first escape pods not long after that. Kate’s in charge of one of the large triage decks, and she has to shout until she’s hoarse to make her orders heard. Children scream, not understanding what’s happening but knowing that it hurts. A man calls out repeatedly for his wife. It’s hard to sort the wounded from the rest as the people pile in from the pods. There aren’t enough surgeons. She can’t keep anything sterile for more than five minutes. She’s seen blood before, she’s seen people lose limbs and eyes, she’s seen burns and lacerations, she’s seen people torn almost to bits and she’s seen people panic and scream and make everything worse because they hadn’t seen those things before.

She can cope. She does her job, and she does it well. 

She feels like an idiot for thinking the waiting would be the worst part.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] War is Good for Business](https://archiveofourown.org/works/697135) by [argentumlupine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentumlupine/pseuds/argentumlupine)
  * [War is Good for Business (The Golden Hour Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1563716) by [aabbey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aabbey/pseuds/aabbey)




End file.
